Thermodynamic Resolution of Pharmaceutical Precursor Modafinil Acid on the Basis of Chiral-at-Metal Strategy

Chiral-at-metal strategy was developed to resolve the essential sulfoxide pharmaceutical intermediates R-modafinil acid and its ana-logues with high yields and ee values.The efficient resolution process was achieved based on the diastereoselective discrimination caused by hydrogen bond and intramolecular π-π interaction between chiral-at-metal center and the coordinated chiral sulfoxide ligands.Moreover,the chiral Ir(lll)receptor can be reused with complete retention of their configurations and without the loss of reaction activity and enantioselectivity.This work provides a new access to synthesize R-modafinil acid as well as its analogues and develops the application of chiral-at-metal strategy in chiral resolution.